The Orioles made a go of it in New York yesterday, but came up just short. Getting swept while only scoring 3 runs in the three game series is pretty bad (though you do have to tip your cap to the Mets’ pitching staff – especially RA Dickey, who is one of the best stories in baseball this year). With Adam Jones no longer hitting the cover off the ball – just .268/.307/.408 with 2 home runs in June – the O’s offense has struggled of late.

The team doesn’t walk all that much and they strike out a ton, which leaves them reliant on the power production. That was a concern early in the season, and as the balls have started leaving the yard less frequently, the team has had more trouble putting runs on the board (and they’ve maybe been fortunate to score as often as he has; 72 in June vs. 63 wRC). If they could continue scoring 4+ runs for every home run they hit while also bumping the latter up, that would be nice though.

In June, O’s have gotten a combined 202 PA (an average of ~3 line-up spots per game) of .231 wOBA production from Ryan Flaherty, Steven Pearce, Steve Tolleson, Endy Chavez, Ronny Paulino and Robert Andino. On top of that, Brian Roberts hasn’t done much since his three-hit debut (.242/.278/.242 overall) and JJ Hardy has walked just once this month and is hitting .213/.222/.300. So that’s a top of the line-up not doing much, combined with a bottom of the line-up made up of what should be bench players. No wonder it’s been ugly out there.